and when all that comes together and it did in 2000 for george w. bush against al gore, then you can take a race with a republican who is trailing about the same amount that romney's trailing now and they reverse that and bush left the debates with a lead. that's the model. >> foreign policy still a wild card, too. and even some polls on the economy, romney seems for be doing better on those. two points on the gwu poll today, right? and we'll get rasmussen -- >> i didn't see gw. i saw a "washington post" abc poll showed two points among likely voters nationally. >> in was two on gwu, too. politico was two points. rasmussen and gallup at 5 and rasmussen at 2. >> polls it show obama up 11 in swing states. that sounds high to me. but in any case, obama's ahead, romney has to change something. he has a chance to do it. >> all right, john harwood, thank you. >> today is the start of the fourth quarter. and joining us is teach stanley, chief economist for peerpont securities. the lead story is how trade is slowing around the world. all of europe's problem